Don’t eulogize Studio Ghibli just yet

I saw reports on Sunday that Japan's Studio Ghibli, the film studio synonymous both with the world's best anime and the man associated with it — Hayao Miyazaki — was closing. And I read the various eulogies bemoaning the passing.

Turns out the mourning may have been a bit premature. The reports seem to have been based on an interview with the studio's general manager, Toshio Suzuki, that aired on Japanese television. Seems Suzuki used words that were far closer to "reconstruction" — or, in English terms, restructuring — than words referring to any definite closing.

So, maybe the eulogies and cries of anguish were uncalled for. Maybe, since Miyazaki's retirement — which was announced earlier this year — Studio Ghibli is merely rethinking how it does business and will continues to churn our quality films. Whatever happens, Miyazaki himself doesn't seem too disturbed.

And if the studio does close, well, that would be too bad. But we'll always have such films as "My Neighbor Totoro," "Grave of the Fireflies," "Princess Mononoke," "Howl's Moving Castle" and the Oscar-winning "Spirited Away" to comfort us.

That's some solace.